The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, November 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

J A M M U & K A S H M I R

Resign before poll, Mufti tells Farooq
New Delhi, November 25
Former Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed suggested yesterday that Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah should step down two months before the next Assembly elections. This would ensure free and fair elections and pave the way for participation of separatists groups in the electoral exercise.

Green houses used to grow vegetables at Leh
Ludhiana, November 25
Greenhouse technology has made growing of vegetables possible even in the Leh-Ladakh areas, where sub-zero temperature upto — 40° C makes any kind of plantation almost impossible. Efforts of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO ) have made possible the supply of fresh and low cost vegetables to Army and local population. The use of greenhouses produces vegetables for the whole year.

EARLIER STORIES

	Hizbul to remain apolitical November 25, 2001
	Divided Cong may miss punch in J&K November 24, 2001
	BJP: don’t implement Resettlement Act November 23, 2001
	Militant involved in Assembly blast held November 22, 2001
	Pak troops shell forward posts November 21, 2001
	5 Lashkar ultras shot in Poonch November 20, 2001
	Option of crossing LoC open: Swami November 19, 2001
	Kabul fallout on Kashmir November 18, 2001
	Ultras active despite Taliban’s fall November 17, 2001
	Afghan refugees may sneak into J&K November 16, 2001
	Hizb rejects APHC’s ceasefire call November 14, 2001

Resign before poll, Mufti tells Farooq
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 25
Former Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed suggested yesterday that Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah should step down two months before the next Assembly elections. This would ensure free and fair elections and pave the way for participation of separatists groups in the electoral exercise.

Talking to newspersons at his residence, Mr Sayeed said Dr Abdullah by stepping down would be performing another patriotic act as subsequent Assembly elections under a caretaker government or under a Governor’s rule would evoke confidence among those who had been nursing a grouse over unfair elections in the past.

Popular perception in the state is that barring the 1977 general elections, all other poll were either rigged or manipulated, he added.

Referring to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Independence day speech from the Red Fort this year in which he had promised free and fair poll in Jammu and Kashmir, the former Home Minister said since Dr Abdullah’s National Conference was a member of the NDA, it was all the more important that the NDA persuaded Dr Abdullah to step down.

Mr Vajpayee’s categorical assurance for ensuring free, fair and impartial poll has blazed a new trail of hope and confidence in the state, he said.

Mr Sayeed, who led a three member delegation of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party to the Chief Election Commissioner yesterday, said that the electoral rolls, which were prepared in 1988, should be updated by undertaking a house to house enumeration as political parties were not in a position to get the voters listed.

He said that he was confident that some Hurriyat leaders might join the elections. The September 11 events in the USA would definitely help in ending militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. “I expect a decline in the militancy in the near future”, he pointed out. Free and fair Assembly election in the state may prove to be a turning point in the history of the state, he said.

Green houses used to grow vegetables at Leh
Manoj Kumar
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 25
Greenhouse technology has made growing of vegetables possible even in the Leh-Ladakh areas, where sub-zero temperature upto — 40° C makes any kind of plantation almost impossible. Efforts of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO ) have made possible the supply of fresh and low cost vegetables to Army and local population. The use of greenhouses produces vegetables for the whole year.

Dr Brahm Singh, Director, DRDO, who was in the city to participate in a workshop on ‘ Greenhouse to Suit Cold Desert Conditions,’ stated this. The workshop was organised by the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering & Technology ( CIPHET) yesterday.

He said, “The army was till recently dependent on the costly supply of vegetables from Chandigarh and other plain areas, as there is no supply of vegetables in these areas in winter. Moreover, the vegetables used to freeze or start deteriorating by the time, these reached the high altitude posts. The situation has completely changed now thanks to greenhouse technology.’’

Dr DP Attrey, Director, Field Research Laboratory and Mr Narendra Singh in their joint paper on the subject pointed out that they had developed many types of solar based greenhouses like glass house, polyhouse, fibreglass house, Ladakhi polyhouse, trench, poly tunnels and underground greenhouse for the cultivation of vegetables.

Addressing the participants in the workshop, Dr Aswani Kumar, said that CIPHET was also working on the technology in association with CSKHP Agricultural University, Palampur to develop greenhouse plantation in the Lahul-Sapiti district under a World Bank aided project. Twenty greenhouses have been already been set up at Lari in Himachal.

Dr Vinod Sharma, project coordinator at Palampur claimed,‘‘ The indigenous technology is less costlier as compared to the Israeli technology. The cost of establishing a greenhouse is about Rs 200-250 per square metre. However, it would make it possible to cultivate certain leafy vegetables in winter and vegetables like capsicum, brinjal and chillies summer.”

The experts said that the semi-underground greenhouse had lowest cost of production of leafy vegetables, when grown in winters ( October to April ), followed by underground greenhouse and other types in Ladakh conditions. Both these technologies maintain maximum suitable temperature inside to facilitate plant growth. It uses solar heaters and soil heat to provide heat for plantation. The farmers would earn about Rs 35- 40,000 per acre per annum by using the technology, they said.

Among others, Dr Anwar Alam, DDG, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Dr S.M. Ilyas, Director, CIPHET, were also spoke at the workshop.